Winnipeg After Stan

Stan had been booked to play the closing concert of the Winnipeg Folk Festival in July of 1983. His brother Garnet agreed, mere weeks after Stan’s death, to play in his place. At the end of his set all the evening’s performers joined Garnet onstage, and along with the thousands gathered in the balmy Manitoba night, they sang “The Mary Ellen Carter.” By the final anthemic chorus, everyone I could see was crying. I was too. It brings tears to my eyes remembering it even now, nearly 20 years later.